Factors associated with childhood vaccine hesitancy and measles vaccine hesitancy among healthcare students

Abstract

This study aims to determine the prevalence and causes of childhood vaccine and measles vaccine hesitancy and refusal among healthcare students in Turkey. The pool of this cross-sectional study, which included 718 students, was made up of healthcare students from the Faculty of Health Sciences at Balikesir University (N = 960). It was determined that 10% of students surveyed were hesitant regarding childhood vaccines, while 11.8% were hesitant with regard to the measles vaccine, specifically. Many of the participants held the belief that chronic idiopathic diseases such as multiple sclerosis and autism are related to vaccines; they also believed that vaccines should not be mandatory. More alarming than this, however, was that in response to a question regarding the measles vaccine, many of the students responded that "I would not have my child vaccinated with the vaccines administered by the Ministry of Health if I had a child." The findings revealed, overall, that the rates of childhood vaccine hesitancy and measles vaccine hesitancy are high among the healthcare students who were surveyed and that a high number of healthcare students hold negative attitudes that are related to rates of vaccine hesitancy.